


Jindo

by hearteyedjk



Category: Original Work
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Dogs, Fire, Heavy Angst, Narrative, Other, Poetry, Prose Poem, Quests, Short One Shot, spilled ink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2018-10-28 12:51:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10831647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearteyedjk/pseuds/hearteyedjk
Summary: Through the eyes of a young, homeless canine, he can at least venture out on a quest and impress the world with his benevolence saving a little girl from an apartment fire.





	Jindo

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this for a quest narrative for English, and honestly it's so ... interesting. I recommend reading this for random times.

Isolation.   
The earth’s day had been going on when the stunning realization hits you that the world either goes on or without you. 

The vessel of this body prevents a life of fullness and love, though it prospers in loneliness and hunger; Hunger of which that leaks tendrils of desire to be impassioned with another soul, or to be able to communicate with those that amaze me. 

Staring through the fur tufted near my brown eyes, I watch an elderly man shoo pigeons away with the end of his newspaper before he sits on the bench at the park we both are present in. 

With my maw parted so my tongue can loll out, every breath pants out while drool drips down off the end of the muscle to land on the concrete beneath my paws.

I'm not exactly hidden in the world, but the world seems to hide me on its own. 

I know this because neglecting me is permanent in my everyday life, for when I see a child with its mother; she hauls it up in her arms and scolds it for coming so close to me.

My eyes trace down towards my paws, and I experimentally lift one to look it over in thought. 

Dogs shouldn't think, they're dumb and an annoyance. At least that's what the people that pass me call me. 

I have no name, but if I did, I'm quite certain then someone would know me at least. But nobody knows me. I am my own companion.

Turning over my paw, the soft pads of my toes exposed towards the sky, I conclude I am filthy. I must stink too, having been on my own for so long in the dark reality of life. 

When you're roaming alleyways and sniffing at garbage, quietly hoping something will be doable to consume. Rarely does it happen though.

I set my paw back down and glance up as I hear heels clicking against concrete. 

A woman in a sleek black dress gives me a disgusted glance and carries on; phone clutched to her ear and lipstick a bright red. Her hair had been pulled back to a tight, slick ponytail, and it occurred to me that she must be a businesswoman. I leave the idea behind once my attention reverts back to the old man settled down at the bench reading the newspaper he’d been waving around a minute before.

Closing my maw as to be as polite as possible, I tread closer with a slow gait as my approach. The man wore a gray beanie and he had tattered clothes. This detail reminded me of myself. If I had of been human, would I give off this exact appearance?  
My tail wags with visible excitement as I notice the elder has turned his attention to me, glasses pushed up to his nose. 

He cracks a toothy smile and goes to reach in his pocket. I feel my tail wagging frantically then, a soft whine leaving my maw. Then I am hand fed a biscuit of some kind, and it's a bit dry but the crumbs that fall to the concrete are eagerly licked up since I am particularly hungry in this hour. His decency of showing me kindness warms my heart, and I step closer to prop my head up on his thigh so he may pet my head. He does just that, scratching behind my ears and releasing a hearty laugh. 

But when he laughs, the sound soon turns to a cough and I worriedly pause all movements of my tail to observe him as the hand that had been buried in the fur along my upper flank is now grasping at a cloth that smells of blood. The man coughs into it and I whine again, nudging him in his knee with my nose. He is going to die then, isn't he? It was never a good sign to be coughing up blood, because I had coughed up many chew toys before and never had I choked on my own blood. It just seemed severe since most people coughed and nothing came out but air.

He pats the top of my head, calls me a good boy, and tells me to run along to catch the pesky geese he’d seen waddling about in other parts of the park. My interest in games weren't very big, since I’d been so focused on survival for the longest time. Isolation had done this to me. My ribs showed and my fur was torn in spots. What breed was I, you are probably wondering. Well I'm simply a black Korean Jindo, a creamy color illustrated along my underbelly.

The streets are bustling at how it is late in the afternoon, dusk soon to take over the skies. Smoke cloaks the air and stains it with its stench, and I sneeze as ashes breeze past my nose. A fire must be nearby, and soon enough I hear the telltale sign of a fire-truck. I forget of the old man and his nurturing care, taking off into a sprint towards the roaring of flames in the apartment next to the park. I manage to dash across the packed street lined with cars that are honking once I reach the end of the square, leaping over the hood of a sedan and landing safely on the other side. When I reach the towering door of the apartment there seems to be heat bellowing from the opposite side, and I swing my head about and above towards the upper levels of the home while worry clouds my thoughts. 

A woman is screaming somewhere inside and it causes my ears to flatten back against my head, my own bark covered by the fire truck's alarms. I yelp as I spot a flying object hurling itself down at me from one of the broken windows, leaping out of the way just as a plank of burnt wood crashes into the pavement before tumbling down the steps behind me. My tail tucks itself between my legs and I flatten my ears against my head again, whining out of fear as my worry grows. The people inside the building could be burning alive, and just that thought has me jumping at one of the flowerbeds structuring off the lower window for the first floor. 

Part of the window is sealed open so I crawl under and land gracefully inside, smoke billowing my vision for a moment before my eyes adjust. I see a man heaving and grasping onto a chair in one of the rooms across from me in an open doorway, but right as I am about to dash over to him, I hear a little girl screaming from above me. She must be on a higher level so I make it my mission to save her if I can, figuring the firefighters would be able to nurture the choking man on the bottom floor as I bound up the staircase with newfound vigor.

My paws are swift to leap up each set of stairs, and once I trust my perception of hearing that I’m on the same level as the girl, I break out into another sprint to run down a long hallway leading to perhaps the room she’s trapped in. Roaring flames are at the doorway when I turn to look inside, and I bark to announce my arrival to the girl as I step back from the affected areas of the fire licking at the carpet inside. From this angle, I can see the small girl hovering on a chair in a corner crying and clutching onto a teddy bear. This reminds me I am here to lend a paw, so my endurance kicks in so that I may bravely rush through the blaze. 

I feel the ends of my fur singing when I reach the vicinity of her whereabouts, whining at her with anxiety because I’m hoping she will understand I am here to assist her. She grabs weakly at the fur along the back of my neck, and I take that as the sign she does. Where I thought she was going to trail close behind me on her own two bare feet, she instead mounts my back and wraps her arms tight around my neck, smushing her teddy bear between our bodies. 

I hardly mind the added weight and lift her with ease, heading back towards the door and pondering how I could soothe the flames down enough where neither of us would be in harm’s way. A certain idea pops into my head as I spot a fallen box nearby, so I wander closer to it and nudge it with my nose towards the fire until it tranquilly puts it out. It gives us enough time for me to clumsily clamber up onto it with shaky legs before I leap on the other end of the doorway, kicking the box back in the process and elevating the fire to pursue us. It has me hurrying away, careful as I slide down each set of stairs as the blaze licks close at my heels. 

The girl clutches tighter around my frame and I whimper as I feel the end of my tail almost catch the conflagration. My poor heart is erratic in its beating and I barely make it to the last floor without the above staircase crashing down behind us to coat us in debris as it puffs out from the rubble. The front door to the apartment has been broken down so I haul the girl and I out of it, pride filling me as I spot a woman who looks like she’s been on the verge of breaking down. 

The woman races over to me and plucks her daughter up from my back, leaving the teddy bear to fall to the ground with one of its eyes missing from where a button should be. I sniff at it and look it over for battle wounds, and sure enough, one of its little paws have been scuffed with soot. The little girl smiles at her mother and her mother smiles back, completely abandoning the fact I was there as they trudge off towards one of the ambulances that have arrived. A firefighter that is passing by pats me on the top of my head and calls me a good boy, which fills me with pride as I bite down gently on one of the teddy bear’s legs to haul it with me back towards the park, neglecting the fact I would need proper care from this point.

Right as I am about to cross the street, I hear the little girl shout from a distance away, so I turn and see her extending her arm out towards me. Guilt pricks at my fur as I realize that I had taken something from her that must have been valuable, so I saunter over to the back of the ambulance to lift my head up and offer the bear back. 

But instead she hugs my neck and calls me her Jindo, repeating it in a mantra and giggling as I sneeze from all the ashes rolling through the air getting stopped up in my snout. Her mother lowers a hand to rub and scratch at my back, reaffirming that I may have a new home in the nearing future. Warmth swells in my heart and I whine happily, wagging my tail behind me as I settle with the girl and her mother for the time they are being examined. Finally, I will have a chance at a new life because of my actions. And to think, a while ago, I’d been wondering what my next meal would be. Now it’s not only about survival. It’s about family now too.


End file.
